Reform leader: Council tax 'highly likely' to go up across West Northants as pressure on services continues to rise
The leader of West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) has said that council tax is ‘highly likely’ to go up next year due to rising pressures on council services.
The authority has recently forecast a huge £50m gap for next year’s finances, which will equate to around 10 per cent of its overall budget.
Speaking at a cabinet meeting last week, finance member Cllr John Slope warned that some choices the authority needs to make to balance the books may not be ‘easy’ or ‘popular’.
West Northants Reform UK Leader, Mark Arnull, told NLive Radio on its weekly politics show that the authority has “a very big financial challenge ahead of us in closing a budget gap that’s huge”.
He explained that pressures in children’s and adult social care, which account for around two-thirds of the budget, were statutory services which means that when there is an overspend due to rising demand the council “don’t have a choice but to do that”.
Cllr Arnull continued: “It’s always been a mission of mine, from prior to the election and now in office, to make sure this is transparent and the council’s not perceived negatively for what it has to do.
“It is important that we raise this at a national level and over years to come our party will be championing in the way Government funding is done and hopefully argues for change.
“The fact that we’re able to put [budget pressures] out confidently should not put the public in fear that services are going to get cut just because there’s a challenge.
“What it means is we have a look at everything again- we’ve got a brand new team of people on the cabinet from different areas and backgrounds, all with a great deal of skill. I’m confident we can close that gap.”
Last year, the previous Conservative administration announced that it had been able to eliminate a £53m funding shortfall for the 2025/26 budget. The process included multiple rounds of review sessions from senior leadership, changes to fees and charges, £24m of service efficiency proposals, and a council tax increase of 4.99 per cent.
When asked about what will happen with council tax next year, the leader said that if it goes behind the curve of inflation and there’s a funding gap going into 2026/27 it could lead the authority into “dangerous territory”.
“We call that a section 114 in local government,” he continued, “That means essentially, commissioners come in to run the administration for you- and we’ve been there before.
“It’s not in our interest to send this authority anywhere near that, but difficult choices have to be made and one thing I promised the electorate when I took office and was elected leader is that I’d be straight with people and I will tell you the truth.”
When pushed on whether WNC was likely to raise council tax next year, Cllr Arnull said: “It’s highly likely, we’re seeing patterns emerging all over the country, but again transparency is key.”